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A couple of things that i find quite interesting about this.
The timing of this is interesting. We've seen over the last couple of years a massive increase in youth involvement in politics. The debate over tuition fees galvanised a large section of the young people of Britain into action. Marches and protests and letter writing campaigns and planned (politely, with permission from the university authorities) campus occupations.
There was a huge rally in London, and kids from all accross the Uk flocked to it. Kids were ditching school and getting down to London with their mates, there were young people at the end of their university courses, protesting on behalf of younger friends and relatives, there were teachers and other professionals, many of whom were in their professions because they'd had access to university education through a combination of loans and grants without having to take on massive amounts of debt to do so.
There was a real sense of energy around their response, and engagement. There was then a lot of support from young people when it came to protests about public sector pensions.
Last year when the main parties were gearing up to the election, the Liberal Democrats heavily courted first time voters, and made tuition fees and student loans one of the central planks of their campaign. They made all sorts of promises, including a cast iron guarantee that if they were in government that they wouldn't allow any increase to tuition fees.
Young people joined the LibDems in droves. They were a huge part of their campaign. The twitter generation used social media to increase the footprint of the lib-dem campaign massively.
Then the two main parties failed to gain a majority, with many of their votes migrating to the Lib Dems, partly because of this youth response and it was down to the Lib Dems, the third party, to attach themselves in coalition to one of the two parties to form a coalition government. They formed a government with the Conservatives, and one of the first things that coalition did was abandon all the promises the libdems made to the young people.
I don't think it's any accident that this is occurring now. I think there is a general sense amongst a lot of young people that the adult world simply isn't interested in them or their views.
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